Jaunted

Tags: Open Threads / Travel Etiquette / Seats / → All Tags

For Whom Would You Take A Middle Seat?

Nobody likes the aisle. That's what we discovered when we asked Jaunted readers what seat they preferred on a plane, and we weren't surprised at all. Given the opportunity to be penned in by two strangers, most people say "pass." Yet, ending up in the middle seat happens to all of us sometimes, and sometimes it's even by choice.

Maybe you're a lot nicer person than we are and you switch seats without complaining or even looking at your fellow traveler. In which case, we salute you and hope we can sit next to you soon. But even you, Nice Traveler, probably have your secret rules as to for whom you will make the move. We'll automatically switch without complaining if you...

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Tags: In-Flight Comfort / Air New Zealand / Airlines / Airline News / Seats / → All Tags

Air New Zealand Wants To Sell Us A Coach-Middle-Seat-Bed Thing

We might be a little premature in declaring a new travel trend, but it appears that selling empty middle seats is the new checked baggage fee. WestJet recently shed a little light on plans to make passengers a little more comfy while cashing in at the same time. Now Air New Zealand, the airline that loves wacky stuff like in-flight dating and body paint, is looking to do the same thing.

As part of a total makeover of the airline—they’re looking to change up their livery and uniforms among other things—they want to sell empty middle seats to coach passengers. If the seat next to you is empty it will be yours as long as you are willing to part with $150. You’ll even be allowed to fully stretch out, as apparently the two seats will slide forward to make some sort of economy bed. They are still hush hush about all the details, and they want to wait until next year before revealing all the secrets about the new seating configurations.

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Tags: US Airways / Airline News / Business Class / Seats / → All Tags

Some Pretty Sweet Suites Coming Soon On US Airways

Sorry US Airways, but when we hear your name the first thing that comes to mind is how you guys were the airline that first decided to charge for drinks up in the sky. To be fair, the policy was only temporary, but we don’t really associate your business model with cool, comfortable, or classy. That’s why we were pleased and surprised to hear that US Airways is equipping part of their fleet with a new business class seat known as the Envoy Suite.

This new Envoy Suite will be able to recline 180 degrees—AKA totally flat—which will definitely help us catch a few winks on a long haul flight. Also noteworthy is that the total bed length will between 6’4” and 6’8” depending on the cabin, so there will be no need to curl up to fit in this seat.

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Tags: Virgin Blue / Seats / LCCs / Australia Travel / Seating / Airline News / → All Tags

Virgin Blue Wants To Squish Your Knees, Make Tall People Suffer On Flights

The Aussie part of Richard Branson's vast empire, low-cost carrier Virgin Blue, has a plan that doesn't sound good for tall or large people. Or anyone one wants to sit reasonably comfortably in a plane, in fact.

Like many airline proposals these days, the new project centers on getting more passengers into the same space. The ideas include putting in extra seats after the emergency exit at the back (apparently that alone would decrease their costs by 3%, presuming people buy those seats) and trying to find other ways to alter the mix of premium, economy and "third class" seats.

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Tags: Bad Ideas / Seatmates / Seats / Seating / In-Flight Comfort / Airline News / Airplanes / → All Tags

New Airplane Design Proposes Seating Passengers Face-To-Face

If British design company Design Q gets its way, airplanes of the future will seat passengers in an innovative—dare we say interactive—high-density configuration. More specifically, they intend to essentially seat passengers face to face for the entire trip:

A British design company says it is working on plans for new sideways, staggered seating on airplanes as a cost-cutting option for airlines to maximize the number of passengers on board. Design Q released images of the concept, which has a row of seats facing inward on each side of the plane and two rows running back-to-back down the middle of the aircraft.

Listen. We know that sometimes we can be a little harsh about the so-called "innovations" that so-called "experts" bring to the table. We've even been known to inappropriately dismiss a good idea or two, an overreaction we put down to years of travel having made us jaded. So we want to be very clear about this:

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Tags: Seats / In-Flight Entertainment / Virgin America / RED / → All Tags

Virgin America is Aware of Super Poking; Recommends 'Light Tapping'

The other day we griped about the "super poking" that often goes on aboard flights with touchscreen seat back TVs, like on Virgin America, where cranky grandmas are nearly banging on the RED system to order their ginger ale and crackers.

But the folks at Virgin America are aware of the situation and are going to begin informing passengers that the "light-tapping" method works the best. Here's what they told Jaunted:

In response, our crews are now including a verbal advisory in-flight which notes that light tapping works best for the Red system interface.  This is also included in our in-flight “How to use Red” guide (see attached). 

We’re definitely monitoring this and hope as people get more acclimated to the system they can see that only the gentlest touch is needed to change channels, select movies, videogames, zoom your journey on Google Maps – or any of the other activities Red offers at every seatback.

We also have qwerty keyboards and a handset remote in every armrest that offers guests full control over Red if they’d prefer not to use the touch-screen.

Did ya hear that Grams? Light-tapping works the best. We'll even come back there and show you how to do it.  

Related Stories:
· The Problem With Seat Back TVs: A Different Kind of Super Poke [Jaunted]
· 2009 In-Flight Entertainment Status Update [Jaunted]

Tags: Seats / Seating / Travel Tips / Delta / Preferred Seating / → All Tags

There's Not Much Of A Selection In Coach Thanks to Those 'Preferred Seats'

Yesterday, we told you about our ordeal trying to get out of a middle seat assignment on a long flight to Paris thanks to Orbitz’s out-of-sync seat maps, but the real culprit is the slew of new coach class “preferred,” “choice,” and “select” seats that are blocked off from assignments until the day before travel.

The airline industry is forecasting losses of about $9 billion by a recent estimate in the New York Times. As a way to squeeze every last penny out of travelers already stretched thin by a la carte (so to speak) meals, fuel surcharges, and additional baggage and airport fees, airlines have started charging for certain coach seats they have labeled as “preferred” to get travelers to think they are somehow worth paying an extra fee to reserve. The question is: are they? The short answer is no.

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Tags: Seats / Seating / Booking Sites / Travel Tips / Orbitz / → All Tags

Stuck in the Middle: Booking Engine and Airline Seat Maps Out Of Sync

You’re a savvy traveler, and you know that when trying to book the best deal on a flight, you should check all the aggregator search engines (Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia, Kayak, etc.) before deciding which airline and fare to go with.

The discount you get may be worth it, but we’re here to warn you about one of the perils of booking on a discount sites based on a recent experience we had with Orbitz. We were looking for a flight from Los Angeles to Paris, and we found a great deal on Northwest Airlines. Great route, quick stopovers, and plenty of empty seats to choose from. Or so we thought as we booked the seat through Orbitz and entered our seat selections.

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Tags: Airline Fees / Qantas / Seats / Airports / Exit Rows / → All Tags

Is Qantas Blaming Airports For Its New Exit Row Charge?

Charging extra for an exit row seat is, sadly, nothing new, although it's largely been the province of budget airlines or short domestic routes. This week Qantas announced it will introduce the system on its international routes, and with a much heftier charge than we're used to – up to A$160 ($125) just to get the extra few inches of leg room (and all that responsibility if there happens to be an emergency).

While passengers backlash against this new charge, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce is busy complaining about how poor Qantas has to pay so much money to airports. He wants to negotiate with Qantas's frequently-used airports to reduce costs, but some airports just won't play ball – Joyce said:

Airports are very, very good at earning revenues out of everything you could imagine - if they could charge for oxygen at the airport they probably would.

Hmm. Sounds a bit like the way airlines think, doesn't it?

Related Stories:
· Joyce Defends Qantas Charge For Emergency Exit Seats [The Age]
· Airports Would Charge for Oxygen If They Could [The Age]
· Getting What You Pay For Travel: The Best Seats in Coach [Jaunted]

[Photo: eperales]

Tags: Overweight Passengers / Ryanair / Airline Fees / Seats / → All Tags

RyanAir Makes Predictable Contribution To The Ongoing 'Passengers Of Size' Debate

Whether it's because customer complaints finally reached critical mass or because they're desperate for new revenue, more and more airlines are forcing overweight passengers to buy multiple seats.

As a formal matter in their Contracts of Carriage, almost all airlines have stipulations that passengers have to pay for what they occupy. But most carriers never really enforced those policies. Sometimes it was because airport employees didn't want to embarrass overweight passengers. Often it was because it's easier to get those passengers on the plane and make it somebody else's problem, where that "somebody else" was the unlucky soul in the next seat.

In any case, corporations like US Air routinely acknowledged the policy but never really stuck to it. In 2002 Virgin Atlantic had to pay a huge settlement to a passenger who was permanently crippled by an obese rowmate who physically crushed her over the course of a Trans-Atlantic flight.

Until recently, in fact, only Southwest consistently forced customers above a certain weight to buy a second seat.

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Tags: United / Airline Fees / Seats / Overweight Passengers / → All Tags

United Forces Overweight People To Purchase Two Seats on Their Planes

One of the perennial travelers' debates: should obese people have to pay for two seats? United put some of their best minds on the case and concluded: hell yeah they should.

Here are the outrageous new rules put forth by United which have already gone into effect:

Under the rules outlined by United, passengers who "are unable to fit into a single seat in the ticketed cabin; are unable to properly buckle the seatbelt using a single seatbelt extender; and/or are unable to put the seat's armrests down when seated" will be denied boarding unless they purchase an extra seat. If no empty seat exists, the passenger will be forced to take a later flight.

Listen. There are decent arguments on both sides. On one side there's the very reasonable point that people should pay for what they use. It's unfair to make one customer sit in half a seat because a bigger customer is taking up a seat and a half. On the other side there's "yeah but still." Yes it's unfair for "oversized" people to inconvenience people who are merely "sized." But still.

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Tags: Open Threads / Window or Aisle / Seats / → All Tags

What Kind of Flier Are You: Window or Aisle?

"The Window or The Aisle?"

It's an age-old question, seemingly as old as "Smoking or Non?", "Paper or Plastic?", or "Hash Browns or Fruit?" Before the recession curbed airline travel, many of us had to take what we could get--whether that be the "viewlicious" window seat, the "easy out" aisle seat or the "dammit" middle seat. But if there are supposedly less full flights out there, this means we may actually get what we want when it comes to seat preference.

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